AddThis

Tags

No, there isn’t a new restaurant on Guadalupe. Verts just changed its name to Noon Mediterranean.

The name change, first announced on Twitter and Instagram on Nov. 17, was the result of extensive rebranding to create an aesthetically pleasing culture, Michael Heyne, CEO and co-owner, said in an interview with QSR Magazine.

“The old name, it was not witty and millennial,” Heyne said in an interview with QSR Magazine. “We didn’t start a restaurant company to give it one name and keep it. We started a restaurant company because of our approach to cooking, to culture, to people. And that old name was just not the right one.”

Noon has a double meaning, as it means bread in Farsi and refers to lunchtime. Along with changing the name, the restaurant will be changing its color scheme from red to a combination of green, blue and yellow and modernizing the interior design.

When contacted, the Noon Mediterranean location on Guadalupe declined to comment on the rebranding.

Reese Brinkley, human development and family science sophomore, said he doesn’t like when restaurants change just to appeal to young people.

“I liked that name,” Brinkley said. “Verts sounds more like a Mediterranean word than Noon. It kind of feels like they think they need to modernize and they’re trying too hard … I looked into the window of the restaurant because I saw they had put up a banner, and it looks a lot different, and I don’t know why they’re making all these changes.”

This is the second name change the restaurant has undergone since its initial opening in 2011. The first name was VertsKebap, which then became Verts in 2016.

Samuel Garcia, an English sophomore, said he regularly goes there with his friends for a quick bite but finds the change confusing.

“I love the food. It’s like a Mediterranean Chipotle,” Garcia said. “Most people I know, when I mention Verts, they pretty much know what Verts is. A lot of people I talk to when I say, ‘Hey, it’s Noon now,’ they’re like, ‘Oh, Verts closed.’”

The name change does not affect Gloria Das, biomedical engineering and neuroscience sophomore. Das said, although the name change confused her initially, it did not affect her opinion of the restaurant.

“I think it’s a good place with good food,” Das said. “I’ll keep going as long as the food is good.”